The BLM Summer of 2020: A Symptom of Civilisational Decay? By Chris Knight (Florida)
The summer of 2020, marked by the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests following George Floyd's death, was a moment of collective frenzy that Eric Kaufmann terms "asymmetric multiculturalism." This phenomenon, where racial identity politics amplify one group's grievances while silencing others, exposed a deeper malaise in Western civilisation. The events of that summer, ranging from corporate pandering to selective law enforcement, suggest a society grappling with moral panic, institutional capture, and a fractured sense of fairness, which some argue signals decay.
The most striking example of 2020's delirium was the declaration by 1,200 public health officials that BLM protests were exempt from Covid-19 restrictions, despite lockdowns prohibiting other gatherings, including anti-lockdown protests. This contradiction, rooted in Leftist ideological alignment rather than science, epitomised the era's selective reasoning. While conservatives faced arrests for violating lockdown rules, often for peaceful acts like attending church, BLM demonstrations, some violent, were implicitly endorsed. This double standard, as seen in Los Angeles recently with immigration protests, reflects a broader pattern where Left-leaning causes receive leniency, while conservative ones face swift repercussions.
The BLM movement transcended the U.S., igniting protests from London to Sydney. In the UK, Premier League players took the knee, and Oxford University offered Black students extra exam time, signalling institutional capitulation to identitarian demands. In Canada, fabricated claims of mass graves at indigenous schools fuelled church burnings, while New Zealand revisited its Treaty of Waitangi, despite its historically equitable framework. Corporations like McDonald's and Apple jumped on the bandwagon, with gestures like renaming social media accounts or streaming "F**k Tha Police" on repeat, prioritising optics over substance.
This global overreach wasn't just moral posturing; it was a shakedown. An estimated $10 billion flowed into BLM and related organisations, with little transparency on its use. JPMorganChase's Jamie Dimon kneeling before an open vault symbolised corporate complicity in what critics call a racket, where fear of being labelled "racist" drove unchecked financial pledges.
Eric Kaufmann's concept of "asymmetric multiculturalism" captures the 2020 ethos: a system where non-white identities are elevated, and white identities are demonised, creating a one-sided cultural narrative. This was evident in the UK, where saying "All Lives Matter" cost jobs, and a retired policeman was jailed for a private joke about Floyd. Meanwhile, violent BLM protests were often described as "mostly peaceful" by media like the BBC, even as buildings burned in the background of reports! This selective outrage, where progressive causes are shielded but conservative ones are punished, mirrors the Los Angeles immigration protests of 2025, where 800 protesters breached federal buildings with limited immediate consequences.
Kaufmann argues this stems from a "racial narcissism" that encourages non-white groups to demand special treatment, reparations, affirmative action, or cultural exemptions, while dismissing universal principles like equal justice. The long-term effects include entrenched division and a sense that fairness is eroding, as seen in ongoing calls for reparations or casting Black actors in White roles, while the reverse remains taboo.
The 2020 BLM summer exposed symptoms of civilisational decline: institutional cowardice, selective enforcement, and a loss of shared truth. When public health officials choose ideology over science, and corporations poured billions into unaccountable causes, it revealed a society unmoored from reason. The UK's lenient treatment of Extinction Rebellion or pro-Palestine protests, contrasted with harsh penalties for anti-immigration or pro-life demonstrators, underscores this decay. As in Los Angeles, where National Guard deployment was needed to quell immigration protests, the failure to enforce consistent standards fuels chaos and distrust.
Yet, there are signs of pushback. Elon Musk's 2022 purchase of Twitter (now X) and Trump's 2024 election on an anti-woke platform suggest a small cultural correction. Corporations have scaled back diversity initiatives, and universities are adopting merit-based policies. However, this is a "backward step" in a long ideological march, not a full reversal. Asymmetric multiculturalism persists, with pressures for reparations and identity-based policies unlikely to fade.
To counter this decay, Western societies must recommit to universal principles: equal treatment under the law, free speech for all, and accountability for violence, regardless of the cause. The 2020 BLM protests, like recent Los Angeles clashes, show what happens when ideology trumps fairness, division deepens, and trust erodes. A civilisation that tolerates such imbalances risks further fracturing, ultimately falling apart.
"What was the most demented moment of the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020? For me, it was when 1,200 public health officials declared that, although meeting other people was a health risk, especially if you were protesting the lockdowns, demonstrating in support of BLM was fine.
Few dared speak out against this obvious madness. Being the only sane person during a spasm of collective psychosis is dangerous, and it truly was a collective psychosis, triggered by months of confinement, with people poring over their screens instead of going out with friends.
Almost every organization joined the bedlam. Congressional Democrats knelt in Ghanaian stoles for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, the amount of time Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck. The New York Stock Exchange observed an 8-minute silence.
McDonald's changed its name on all social media platforms to "Amplifying Black Voices." Apple replaced its music app radio stations with a single stream playing N.W.A's "F**k Tha Police" on repeat. Lego canceled advertising for its police-related toys. Woe betide you if you did not post a black square on June 2, 2020, to mark #BlackOutTuesday.
The delirium went global. From Latin America to continental Europe, people decided that a rogue police officer in Minneapolis symbolized racism in their countries. Canadians toppled statues and burned churches over a wholly fictitious account of mass graves in indigenous boarding schools. Australians held a referendum on giving Aboriginals extra parliamentary representation. New Zealand, which has enviable race relations by any standard, decided to reopen its founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which (remarkably for its or any other time) the world's most powerful empire was treated on equal terms with Stone Age tribes.
Britain went every bit as bonkers as the United States. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, then leader of the Opposition, took the knee, as did every Premier League soccer player at the start of matches. Oxford University granted black students extra time on their exams. Bookshops replaced their usual stock with Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility and Ibram X. Kendi's How to be an Antiracist. Even British children's shelves were filled with nagging morality tales.
The BBC, like CNN, lost all self-awareness. Its presenters gabbled about "mainly peaceful protests" while viewers watched footage of burning buildings and injured police officers. People lost their jobs for saying "All Lives Matter," which is about the most uncontroversial statement imaginable in normal times. One retired policeman actually went to prison for posting a tasteless joke about Floyd in a private WhatsApp group.
Ten billion dollars was poured into the coffers of BLM and BLM-adjacent outfits without anyone daring to ask what it would be used for. When JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon took the knee in front of an open bank vault, he personified the corporate world's attitude. Shakedown artists took the hint. To this day, no one has much idea of where the $10 billion went or who has it now.
On the fifth anniversary of the height of the protests, those events had an unreal, phantasmagoric quality. The identitarian Left over-reached, seeking to bring the same bullying style to other matters on its agenda, such as transgender rights and supporting Palestinians. But the tide was no longer flowing their way. In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter, now X. In 2023, the world was disgusted by anti-Israel demonstrations on campuses in the aftermath of pogroms. In 2024, President Donald Trump was elected on an overtly anti-woke platform.
Official America got the memo. The corporate leaders who spent 2020 moralizing about white privilege sacked their diversity consultants faster than you could say "intersectionality." Universities began adopting merit-based admissions policies. People started voicing opinions that would have cancelled them in 2020.
But the needle never quite moved back to where it was. In fields adjacent to race, some of the more extreme rhetoric is now recognized for the nonsense it is. Few argue with the same self-righteous confidence that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that Hamas represents legitimate resistance against a settler-colonist state.
But the racial narcissism that 2020 encouraged in every non-white population, what Eric Kaufmann called "asymmetric multiculturalism," is not going away. The pressure for slavery reparations will continue to build. It will still be a cause of self-congratulation when black actors are cast in white roles, while the reverse remains unthinkable.
Leftists sometimes talk of a "long march through the institutions," but in truth, it is a long Foxtrot with occasional backward steps. We are in one of those backward steps now. Don't mistake it for a new direction."
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